Yet, the importance of India’s Catholic Church to world Catholicism was highlighted when, in February 1986, Pope John Paul II paid a ten-day visit to India. His 14-city tour included a visit to the state of Kerala, where the largest concentration of Catholics in India is found.

Is ‘Conversion’ the Aim?

When fundamentalist Hindu organizations warned that the pontiff’s presence would itself encourage mass conversions to Christianity, the church did everything possible to put distance between itself and the thought that it desired to convert Indians. “No one need be afraid,” said the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India. “The Holy Father is not coming to convert people.” Even more emphatic was the statement of one Indian archbishop: “The Catholic Church strongly opposes proselytisation. It is an interference in religious freedom. We denounce it, condemn it.”

What about the pope himself? “The Catholic Church recognizes the truths that are contained in the religious traditions of India and this recognition makes true dialogue possible,” he told an audience representing Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Judaism, Islam, and some professing Christianity. On another occasion, he professed a like-mindedness with other faiths, stating: “We proclaim our solidarity with our Hindu and Muslim brothers and sisters and the followers of other religious traditions.”

This professed solidarity was manifested not in words alone. During the pope’s visit, he was garlanded by a priest of Calcutta’s famous Kali Temple of Kalighat.a At another time, he received vibhuti, or holy ash, on his forehead from a Hindu priest and donned a Muslim ponnadai (shawl) displaying symbols of the Islamic faith.

Despite all of this, when the pope addressed the Indian bishops, he outlined the “proclamation of the Gospel” as one of the key issues affecting the well-being of the church in India. But what kind of gospel proclamation did the pope have in mind? Not surprisingly, he emphasized that the spreading of the gospel should come through programs for social justice and economic advancement.

The pope stated that “the Church’s mission of evangelization includes energetic and sustained action for justice, peace, and integral human development. Not to assume these tasks would be to betray the work of evangelization; it would be infidelity to the example of Jesus.”

“All who have advanced the dignity and freedom of their brothers and sisters are blessed in the eyes of Christ,” the pope proclaimed. Thus the Indian press appropriately observed: “No one​—not even the most conservative and pro status quo member of the church hierarchy—​now talks of preaching the good news in the narrow, literal sense of spreading Christianity as a religion.”

A Hindu-Catholic Church?

In an effort to make Catholicism less foreign and more Indian, the church has encouraged a program of adaptation in its worship. Thus, some Catholic priests will read prayers while sitting on the floor as in a Hindu ashram, Vedic mantras may be used in place of Western hymns, and Hindu Nilavilakku (brass oil lamps) may be lit before many functions.

“The idea,” according to one Catholic layman, “is to identify the universal elements in Hinduism and other religions and to incorporate symbols and rituals associated with those into our worship, to complement and support it.” The religious rites and methods of worship in many of Kerala’s churches are a definite mixture of Catholic traditions and Hindu customs.

Where Is the Church Headed?

While in India, the pope, alluding to the teachings of Mohandas Gandhi, advocated that “leaders of all peoples must believe and act on the belief that the solution to the world’s problems lay within the human heart.” He also urged the youth to “follow the teachings of the great sages of yore whose words contain ‘perennial wisdom and truth’ and which will inspire them to march forward in life.”